Analysis of Planar 4??4 Microstrip Antenna Arrays Installed on Airframes

This paper presents computations and measurements of installed performance of microstrip arrays on aerostructures. Due to the large electrical size of the airframe, the simulations have been performed using physical optics and the multi-level fast multipole method. These computations are validated by measurements in the antenna test range at DLR Oberpfaffenhofen. A comparison between the numerical and experimental results is presented. The details concerning the electromagnetic simulations are given in this paper.